Summary
This document is Benito Garza’s pro se Petition for Discretionary Review to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It challenges the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals’ affirmance of his felony-murder conviction, asserting that the jury should have received a unanimity instruction regarding alternative underlying felonies and alleging ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. The petition requests reversal and remand for a new trial.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court violated the jury-unanimity requirement by submitting alternative underlying felonies—evading arrest and robbery threats—as theories of felony murder without requiring the jury to unanimously agree on which felony Garza committed.
- Whether the alleged unanimity error caused egregious harm.
Holdings
- No. When felony murder is charged under section 19.02(b)(3) and the indictment alleges alternative underlying felonies, the jury must unanimously find that the defendant committed a felony, but need not unanimously agree on which particular felony served as the underlying felony.
- The court did not reach harm because the trial court did not err in omitting a unanimity instruction.
Key quotations
“"the jury must unanimously agree about the occurrence of a single criminal offense,... they need not be unanimous about the specific manner and means of how that offense was committed."” (4)
“"These felonies constitute the manner or means that make up the 'felony' element of Section 19.02(b)(3)."” (5)
Factual background
Police responding to a home invasion saw a small gray Kia traveling away from the area and attempted to stop it. The Kia entered an interstate exit ramp traveling the wrong way and collided head-on with a motorcycle, killing Pedro Tenorio and seriously injuring Roxana Tenorio. Garza was identified as the Kia's driver and was charged with felony murder based on alternative underlying felonies of evading arrest and robbery threats.
Procedural history
Garza was charged in Bexar County Cause No. 2013CR9168 with felony murder under Texas Penal Code section 19.02(b)(3), based alternatively on evading arrest in a vehicle and robbery threats. A jury convicted him and assessed punishment at sixty years' confinement. The Fourth Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment on August 5, 2015.